


The Colour of You

by orphan_account



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 00:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13846308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: In a world where humanity has solved the problems of poverty and hunger, it still hasn't let go of the need to create a hierarchy.The upper-classes cling to the one thing that make them 'better' than anyone else: the ability to see colour.An ability that will be taken away if you choose to consort with someone lower than you.Is love worth giving up the colours of the rainbow for?It's something Ong Seongwu has to decide for himself.





	The Colour of You

Once upon a time, someone decided sunsets were just too precious to share with the world.

Maybe that’s just what happens when seeing colours isn’t something you’re born with.

Seongwu still remembers the day he received The Sight.

 _Come, sweetheart_.

His hand in his mother’s, walking down a narrow corridor, blindfolded.

Quiet voices.

She holds his hand as he’s led to some sort of chair, letting go only once he’s seated.

The chair feels too big for his eight-year-old body. And the world goes even darker when some sort of helmet is lowered onto his head.

Seongwu calls out for his mother.

 _I’m here. It’ll be fine_.

A click. Followed by the sound of whirring.

Flashes of light that penetrate even the tightly-fixed blindfold.

Barely three breaths before it’s over. Someone untying his blindfold but his mother, she’s right in front of him, hands in his.

He blinks. And for the first time he sees the world in more than shades of grey, and the first colour that draws his attention is the hue of his mother’s eyes.

 _Brown_ , that’s what they call it. In the warm depth of her eyes Seongwu remembers spotting a glimpse of his reflection. How those eyes shine, dark as they are, with all the love in the world.

Her eyes, which close for the last time the following year, as neither money nor status can stave off Death.

 

***

“Young master, will you be needing anything else?”

Jisung, Seongwu’s retainer, as always attentive. Not that much older than Seongwu but his family had worked for Seongwu’s for a very long time.

Seongwu missed his childhood days, when Jisung was more of a playmate than a servant.

The days when Jisung’s cousin Daniel would also visit and the three would play hide-and-seek around the Ong family grounds.

That all changed after his mother died. She had encouraged their games, despite herself being a part of the Echelon.

The Echelon, the chosen upper class, the only ones gifted with the ability to confer the Sight. It was all that differentiated them, really.

Poverty had been eradicated a century back. No one needed to starve or go without, much of human suffering had been consigned to the history books.

Yet privilege is something hard to do without - once you've tasted it.

You could have all the money or the world, but it wouldn't buy you the Sight. It was all the Echelon had left to make them feel that they were special. That they, were somehow, _better_.

"Call a car for me please?" Seongwu said, Jisung nodding in answer.

If his father had been away, he'd have asked Jisung to join him. But alas, father was home. Father was _watching_.

"If that'd be all..." It was Seongwu's turn to nod, a sign Jisung was free to return home to his own estate.

Servants were hard to come by, and the Echelon were loathe to do without hired help. But the Ongs had made a pact with Jisung's family a long time ago - in return for a decent parcel of land and the promise that once, every 20 years, one of them would be picked randomly to be gifted with the Sight, the Yoons agreed to be hired help. But they had fixed hours, set duties, a code of conduct the Echelon must obey (any form of abuse would render the pact invalid) and they had the weekends off.

"Where to, young master?" His driver for the day was grinning in a way that was perhaps a little too familiar.

Not that Seongwu minded. "Cut the _master_ shit, Daniel." The younger man laughed in reply.

"Whatever you say, boss!" Seongwu groaned.

What a farce it all was. Still, one must keep up appearances, he thought as he sat himself in the back seat. If his father was on one of his overseas business trips, he'd be right up front and maybe even driving the car.

It was, however, a weekday, and his father was probably skulking at the window, watching to see if his son was properly behaving himself. Not that the help would ever tell on him if Seongwu ever acted a bit too familiar around them.

"There's a photography exhibition happening in town over in the West Side."

"Didn't know you were into that. Thought you'd be more into catching a game of hoverball, or checking out the bars at the Strip. If you were going to slum it with us Ordinaries." Daniel winked.

" _We_ do that every night. Maybe a change will do us both good."

"Suit yourself. I'll get a headstart on the drinking while you go look at photos. You'd appreciate them more anyway."

 _What a lie_.

Seongwu knew Daniel could probably appreciate the exhibition at least half as much.

Daniel had the Sight in one eye; it was a mutation that was becoming more common outside the Echelon. The Echelon depended on a special ultrasound machine that somehow activated the receptors that allowed for the perception of colour. In the people they dismissively called the Ordinaries, colour perception was becoming something innate - an evolution that was slow in coming, but it was coming.

Those who could see kept it secret. The Echelon were petty, jealous. It wouldn't do for the lower classes to have something they believed they monopolised.

It was theorised that perhaps the Echelon's near-inbreeding meant that the likelihood of a colour-seeing mutation was actually lower.

Ironic.  
  
Daniel waved, one last cheeky grin before heading to their usual speakeasy. That grin had been the death of Seongwu once upon a time but alas, Daniel loved girls almost as much as he loved beer. And hoverball.

Not to mention Seongwu's father would have disowned him - and make sure he was stripped of the Sight. The Yoons would have taken him in anyhow; their pact certainly didn't disallow it.

He didn't need the status. Could do without the trappings of being an Ong. But the gift of colour was something he associated with his mother.

"Can you count the colours in the sunset, my darling?" He remembered that first sunset with her, his hand again warm and safe in hers.  
  
"There's...so many!" He still remembered the sound of her laughter and how she named each shade and hue.

He would always love brown, though. The deepest, darkest browns - almost black, but not quite, with the slightest of sheens.

Whenever he thought of running away and leaving his Sight behind, it felt as though it would be like leaving his mother behind.

He saw her in every colour and that was the only reason for him to love the Sight.

***

The exhibition was in a hall that had a glass ceiling - which let in a lot of natural light, a perfect setting to admire the photographs on display.

From the very first photo, Seongwu found himself captivated. More than anything he noticed just how vibrant the colours were.

It felt as though they were a celebration, an ode to the many shades of the rainbow. Even in a setting that seemed pastoral, wildflowers in a sunny meadow, the colours seemed to pop forward.

 _He must have the Sight_. It wouldn't be possible otherwise, Seongwu thought.

There weren't many other visitors and Seongwu wondered if it was because such a display could only truly be appreciated by the Sighted.

He spied, over on his far left, a tall young man who was calmly looking at a photo of a sunset.

Sunsets were each unique but this evoked memories of Seongwu's first, a heady mix of delicate lavenders and deep purples, with a dash of magenta and hints of violet.

"That's something, huh." Seongwu said, testing the waters. It felt rude to ask the stranger outright if he could see all the colours.

"I guess it is." The man looked at him, smiling. His eyes crinkled into rather attractive crescents and Seongwu was more than a little awed.

"But I suppose it'd be stunning in colour," he added.

 _Ah_. "It is," Seongwu said. "My name's Seongwu, by the way."

"Ong Seongwu?" He supposed he shouldn't be surprised the stranger knew his name. There weren't many Echelon families in the area.

"Yeah, me. And you are?" In response, the stranger held out his hand.

"Minhyun. Hwang Minhyun." Seongwu took his hand before something clicked in his head.

"Hwang? You're, you're the photographer. You're telling me, you can't..."  
  
Minhyun shook his head, smiling. "I can't See. But I like to believe that's not a problem where taking photos are concerned. Weren't most photos black and white in the early days?"

Seongwu could only nod. It felt incredible that someone unable to discern colours could create an exhibition with hues that stood out as much. A celebration of colour by someone without the Sight.

Colour him intrigued.

Having Minhyun there gave Seongwu a chance to ask the story behind each photograph, asking the most questions about the ones that particularly caught his eye.

"How do you do it?" Seongwu, hand waving in a sweeping gesture at the photos. "There's so much colour and contrast, it's so vivid and yet true-to-life."

Minhyun laughed again. "Have you ever heard of colourising? It's an art, really. Turning black and white images into coloured ones."  
  
"You could say I colourise them in my head. By seeing all the different shades in-between black and white."  
  
Seongwu listened, fascinated as he heard Minhyun talk about how he'd catalogued the various shades and tones, learning to detect even the slightest variance. He'd learned just how many kinds of black there actually could be and how Minhyun had developed a knack of determining whether something truly was black, or some other colour.

"I think you'd love meeting my friend Dan. He's half-Sighted, you see. Oh, err, and please don't tell anyone?"  
  
_Shit_. It wasn't like Seongwu not to ask Dan first before sharing the secret. Besides Jisung, no one in the Yoon family knew about it either.

He figured he could probably make it up to Dan somehow but in the meantime..."Join us for a drink?"  
  
Minhyun's smile was the best answer.  
  
***

It wasn't long before the three of them together was a common sight at their usual speakeasy. A Sighted, a half-Sighted, and an Ordinary sitting in a bar.

Sometimes, there'd be field trips too. Long drives into the countryside, Minhyun with his camera and sometimes Jisung with a picnic basket.

Laughter and sunlight. Green grass, warm smiles.

"If only these days would last forever," Minhyun whispered to him one day, as they sat beneath a shady oak.

Seeing the rays stream through the branches, and his own eyes reflected in Minhyun's soft brown ones, Seongwu whispered a soft reply that only Minhyun heard.

His answer was a brush of fingers down Seongwu's cheek.

Easy enough then, for Seongwu to move closer and lay his head in Minhyun's lap. Easier to fall asleep as he felt Minhyun's hand gently caressing the top of his head.

The sound of birds. The feeling of a gentle breeze. And in the background...Daniel's snoring. He'd fallen asleep an hour ago.

"You ever going to get around to telling him, Seongwu?" Daniel asked one night, as he nursed his third pint. Minhyun hadn't been able to join them that night and it was just the two of them.

 _Just like the old days_.

"I have no idea what you mean," Seongwu said into his own mug.

"Sure you don't...By the way, I'm taking Minhyun out on a date next Friday."

Seongwu choked.  
  
"You what? I didn't know you were..."  
  
"Kidding! Oh, man, the look on your face..." Daniel was having way too much fun with this, Seongwu thought as he scowled into what was remaining of his beer.

The dregs of his dark beer, reminding him a little too much of a certain person's eyes.  
  
He knew that he was gay, as he knew that Daniel was straight enough to draw architectural plans with. But Minhyun? There had just never been reason to bring it up.

"The worst that could happen is he would say no," Daniel said as he motioned the waiter for a refill.

Seongwu sighed. "I just, I don't want to lose him."

"You didn't lose me," Daniel said.

"What the...what do you mean by that?" Seongwu sputtered.

"Remember that time you had a crush on me? I knew. It didn't weird me out, dude," Daniel said.

"Why didn't you say anything?" This was indeed a revelation. And fuck, if Daniel knew, did other people? Jisung?...His father even?

"How did Jisung put it? _Emotional constipation_ , yeah that sounds about right." Daniel laughed, taking a healthy swig.

"Not me, though. You. I mean, if you'd said something I would have been fine with it. Maybe it wouldn't go anywhere but I'd still be your friend, whatever." A drunk Daniel was also a very chatty Daniel. Good thing cars were auto-driving these days, with manual being an option for those with too much time on their hands. Daniel was definitely not fit to drive.

"Minhyun's great you know," Daniel continued. "If he were a girl, I'd totally not give you a chance to ask her out first."

"As your best friend, however, I'm saying you shouldn't wait. Give it a chance. Give yourself a chance."

Seongwu sighed. "It's not just about being emotionally...it's all the family stuff. Part of me doesn't know whether I'd be willing to give that bit up selfish as it is to say."  
  
Daniel nodded. "Maybe you just need to find out."

***

 _What's your favourite colour?_ Minhyun had asked him once. They'd been on on a photography excursion at a nearby seaside town.

Seongwu had told him. Showed it even, though it seemed an act of futility to describe colour to man who couldn't see. Pointed out the bark of nearby trees, the dark wet sand and even laughingly pointed at his own eyes.

Then it was his turn to ask questions, wanting to know just why Minhyun was interested.

"What you love reflects who you are, I guess?" Minhyun said. "Even if I can't see a specific colour I think it gives off a certain energy."  
  
"Warm and cool colours, yeah. That's one way of putting it. Like how even fire has different colours but blue is seen as a cool colour and yet a blue-burning flame is far hotter than a red," Seongwu said.

"If you could see a colour," he said, turning to Minhyun, "What would it be?"

Minhyun was silent for a while, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I guess I'd like to see...the colour of your eyes," he answered, smiling. "They're rather pretty even when I can't see their colour."  
  
All Seongwu could manage was a nervous giggle in response.

Months passed. And still the question remained unasked. A question that changed all the time.

Do you like guys?

Do you like girls?

Do you like anyone?

Do you like _me_?

It wasn't that Seongwu didn't try. But all Minhyun had to do was give him that smile and there was nothing that could loosen his tongue enough, no matter how much liquid courage he'd imbibed.

Daniel, in the end, threatened to never join them on their drinking meetups until he 'found his spine' and if Daniel was willing to give up his favourite pastime to get Seongwu to do something, he felt he just had to try.

He'd asked Minhyun to meet him, back where they first met. And this time, he'd brought his own photograph.

"So what did you want me to show me?"  
  
Seongwu swallowed. "It was something I read about, tests they used to determine who had the Sight and who didn't. Colourblind tests, they'd call them."

He held up what looked, to Seongwu, like a mess of green and blue blobs.

"I can't read this, but I'm hoping you can."

Minhyun took the postcard-sized photo from his hand. There was silence as he looked at, holding it up to the light, turning it around.

In the photo, there wasn't a question.

It was a statement. A decision. An outcome. A hope.

When Minhyun looks at him with those brown eyes Seongwu loves so much, he tries to read them. But like he always does, he gets lost instead in their depths.

So lost, he almost doesn't notice that Minhyun's taken his hand. Intertwined their fingers.

He'll remember, just how brown those eyes are just before they close as Minhyun whispers...

 _I love you too_.

Seongwu still sees those eyes when his own close as their lips finally, finally touch.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt was tricky - hopefully the asker isn't too disappointed by it.
> 
> Just for fun, check out this YouTube channel showing just how a pro colourises black and white photos. Part of the inspiration for this fic.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/user/IColoredItForYou/videos
> 
> Also reverse Ishihara images are images only the colourblind can see. You can read more about them here:  
> https://www.moillusions.com/reverse-color-blindness-test/


End file.
